FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 9, 2017

Manhattan Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for
Killing Acquaintance in Williamsburg

Purchased Two Knives after Argument, Returned and Stabbed Victim, Severing Femoral Artery

Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 59-year-old man from upper Manhattan was sentenced to 20 years in state prison for fatally stabbing another man in 2011. After a verbal argument, the defendant went to a store, purchased two kitchen knives, returned to the scene of the dispute, and stabbed the victim in the thigh, leaving him bleeding to death.

Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “The victim was a loving father, just one week from walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. He had the great misfortune to encounter this defendant, who stabbed him to death after a meaningless argument. The defendant’s taking of human life over something so trivial is unconscionable, and we are all well served by the lengthy sentence imposed today.”

The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Ramon Escobar, 59, of Inwood, Manhattan. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Sciarrino to 20 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision following his conviction on November 17, 2016 of first-degree manslaughter and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon after a jury trial.

The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on the night of April 29, 2011, at the corner of South 9th Street and Roebling Street in Williamsburg, the defendant and the victim, 46-year-old David Fernandez, got into an argument after the defendant accused the victim of making inappropriate contact with Escobar’s girlfriend. The defendant was heard saying “I am going to kill him” before being ushered away from the scene; his girlfriend headed into a nearby subway station.

The defendant walked to the Crazy Loco 99 Cent store at 281 Broadway and purchased two 8-inch kitchen knives, the evidence showed. He then returned to the scene and began a struggle with Fernandez, during which he stabbed him in the left thigh. The six-inch wound pierced the bone and severed major blood vessels, including the femoral artery and vein, causing profuse and fatal bleeding.

The victim, who worked as a bike messenger, had two daughters, one of whom was set to get married the following week.

The defendant was arrested in April 2015, after an eyewitness came forward, and was connected to the crime through DNA, surveillance videos and other evidence.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Chow Xie and Assistant District Attorney Michael Solomon of the District Attorney’s Trial Bureau, Grey Zone, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Timothy Gough, Bureau Chief.